On the 16th and 17th of October 2019, the members of our dance group put in our all in the showcasing the piece that we had invested six week’s time into. After countless of weekly rehearsals, Saturday rehearsals and the show week’s run-throughs, we were finally able to perform to a receiving audience. In retrospect, I am incredibly proud of the quality of performance that we put forth within the short period of time we were given.
Through this experience, I was not only able to increase my exposure to performance in the arts and nurture my confidence in standing in front of an audience, but I was also able to learn valuable skills that I feel is easily transferrable to other circumstances. The skill of collaboration was constantly consolidated and put to the test the skill of collaboration – the act of working with others in order to create something. In this case, we were both collaborating to create a performance piece and collaborating to cultivate a mutually supportive culture.
The level of collaboration within each dance group is easily identified. It is evident in the clarity of the formation, the synchronization between the dancers and particularly in our dance, the fluidity of the movement within the partner dance. The collaboration was a real challenge within our group because it took the combined effort of every single member of the dance in order to perform the piece to our best ability. This posed as a difficulty for us as we experienced people’s varying levels of commitment towards the dance. Fortunately, the great majority of the dancers put their utmost effort into the dance, however, there were still few who failed to commit the required rehearsals. Consequently, this made it difficult for accuracy in the formations because when people were absent, it left gaping holes in the formations, making it challenging to determine where you were meant to stand relative to the people next to you. This also greatly impacted the partner dances as several individuals were left to dance by themselves. Because of the lack of practice that mimicked the real experience, several partners were uncoordinated, leaving more to nerves and senses of anxiousness. I learned that both the quality and the consistency of the collaboration work hand-in-hand and only with by exemplifying both will the level of collaboration and harmony in a group be heightened. It was crucial to continuously motivate and build trust in one another in order to perform and put forward a united front.
Even with our setbacks, our performance illustrated the benefits of persevering in our collaboration as it was evidently well-received by the audience. Looking back at the recording of our first rehearsal and final performance, the progress made is undeniable. From instances stumbling and stepping on one another’s feet to three minutes of fluidity in motion, creating a piece that I believe it is safe to say every person in the group was proud of. As mentioned in the post regarding my initial thoughts, all the starting reservations that I held were completely valid. The unease from stage-fright, the concerns of keeping up with steps and the issues of coordination were all put to the test. Nevertheless, I believe the experience was nothing short of enriching. #L05
The team!
Photo captured by the photographers during the dance
Photo captured by the photographers during the finale
